It’s almost that time of year again! Banned Books Week this year will be celebrated September 30-October 6! I know two years ago I made a really big deal about it, but then last year it was like I totally forgot. Luckily, earlier this year I received some fan e-mail that reminded me that this project existed, so I decided to try again this year! Here’s the ALA’s list of the Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2011, compiled from all the challenges reported to the Office for Intellectual Freedom:
Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2011
1. ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: offensive language; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
2. The Color of Earth (series), by Kim Dong Hwa
Reasons: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
3. The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: anti-ethnic; anti-family; insensitivity; offensive language; occult/satanic; violence
4. My Mom’s Having A Baby! A Kid’s Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy, by Dori Hillestad Butler
Reasons: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
5. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: offensive language; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
6. Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Reasons: nudity; offensive language; religious viewpoint
7. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Reasons: insensitivity; nudity; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit
8. What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
Reasons: nudity; offensive language; sexually explicit
9. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily Von Ziegesar
Reasons: drugs; offensive language; sexually explicit
10. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Reasons: offensive language; racism
I’ve actually read all of these before except My Mom’s Having a Baby! by Dori Hillestad Butler, so I thought reading through them wouldn’t be much of a challenge. You might remember when I did this project two years ago, I used this collection of banned or challenged books from 2009-2010, which I liked because it included information about where the book was challenged. So I went looking for a more recent version for this year. Unfortunately, it’s probably still too early for the 2011-2012 version, so I went with the 2010-2011 edition to get this list.
Books Challenged in Public Libraries
The Notebook Girls: Four Friends, One Diary, Real Life
My Mom’s Having a Baby
The Awakening
The Koran
Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India
Pit Bulls and Tenacious Guard Dogs
We’ll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives by Paul Shaffer
Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology
I’ve bolded ones I’ve already read, although I’ll probably still do a post about them!! I’m excited to read some controversial literature because, in my experience, any book that gets people talking–positively or negatively–makes for an interesting read. As always, I’ll try to include more information about why it was challenged and what the outcome was as well as the juiciest part, which, if two years ago was any indication, will probably be disappointing to those of you led on by the false promises of “nudity”, “sexually explicit” ,and “pornographic”. Sorry.
And, if I have time, here’s the list of books challenged in school libraries from the same resource: Read the rest of this entry »